EF1 tornado, Tompkinsville, Kentucky, May 3, 2021

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 3, 2021

Touchdown

8:08 AM CDT (13:08 UTC)

Lifted

8:09 AM CDT (13:09 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Monroe County

Touchdown point

36.702, -85.696

Lift-off point

36.709, -85.681

Record number

2105030708-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Large travel trainer knocked down, many trees snapped or uprooted

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Early on May 3rd, central Kentucky sat in the warm sector ahead of an approaching surface low. Much of the region saw only rain showers, but one isolated cell in southern Kentucky was able to produce a short lived EF-1 tornado in the city of Tompkinsville, KY. ||On May 4th, a cold front, following the first system, produced additional rain showers and thunderstorms on the already saturated ground. The result was widespread flash flooding with isolated severe wind damage.

The National Weather Service determined an EF-1 tornado with maximum sustained winds of 95 mph caused a damage path 60 yards wide. ||The thunderstorm quickly became severe in southwest Monroe County. It quickly became severe in southwest Monroe County and became tornadic on the southwest side of Tompkinsville. The tornado touched down near the intersection of Second and Jackson Streets. Trees were lying in multiple directions and most of them were twisted, snapped, or uprooted. Power lines were down, and several power poles were snapped. Winds at that location were between 85 and 90 mph with a width of 50 yards. ||Farther to the northeast, between 5th Street and Carter Street, the tornado increased to 95 mph and the width expanded out to 60 yards. Several homes experienced roof damage with some windows blown out. One home had multiple large trees uprooted with a camper trailer and pontoon boat flipped over. There were several pieces of lumber that were impaled in the ground and pieces of sheet metal thrown into trees. ||The US Bank building received roof damage before the tornado briefly lifted before touching down near the intersection of Pedigo and White Streets. ||There was significant tree damage on the east of Main Street by Pedigo Street. Trees were facing multiple directions. Mud spatter was on the backside of homes and vehicles along Short Street to Monroe Street. Multiple power lines were down in the area. Winds decreased to 90 mph along Monroe Street. ||The National Weather Service drone found some twisted tree tops near Spring Valley Road and Woodhaven as a result of wind speeds of 85 mph. The tornado lifted at Jackie Crow Salvage Yard as it threw debris on top of a hill about 250 yards from the salvage yard. ||Several videos showed brief funnels coming down from the main storm, almost like a small skipping tornado.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:50 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:06 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.